BEVERLY HILLS, September 29, (THEWILL) – Governors of the 36 states have asked the federal government for a bailout in the form of budget support, lamenting that the amount accruing to states from the federation account is under N600 bn.
Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi state made this known to reporters on behalf of his colleagues at the end of Thursday’s National Economic Council, NEC, meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
The three tiers of government shared the sum of N637.7bn as statutory allocation for the month of August. The amount represents an increase of N169.9bn over the N467.8bn, which the committee allocated in the month of July.
Umahi stated that the request for fresh relief funds is meant to assist governors offset staff salary arrears, adding that most of the governors persuaded the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adoesun, to find ways of sustaining the provision of budget support to the states.
According to him, “We came to the understanding that every month, if the total shareable revenue in the federation account is less than N600billion, the minister of finance will give each state budget support.
“We concluded that in the last 12 months and that continued for the second year, states have done very well, some states have been able to pay their accumulated salary debts and then also increased their commitment to infrastructure and generation of revenue.
“However, from July, that was not paid and in the month of August, I think about seven states were paid because according to the minister, other states did not comply with the set down rules, the most outstanding of that was the non-remittance of VAT from the states.
“So those seven states have been paid but more states have complied but we requested that those states that have complied should be paid.”
The Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, who addressed journalists shortly after the Federation Account Allocation Committee meeting, stated that there was a significant increase in revenue for August.
He put the gross statutory revenue received for the month at N550.9bn, adding that it was higher than the N387.31bn received in the previous month by N163.67bn.
The Accountant-General said the amount shared was distributed under two main revenue subheads.
Giving a breakdown of the statutory allocation, he said after deducting the cost of collection for the revenue generating agencies, the Federal Government received N260.6bn, representing 52.68 per cent; the states received N132.18bn or 26.72 per cent; while the local government councils got N101.9bn, 20.6 per cent of the total.
In addition, Idris stated that the oil producing states received N41.97bn based on the 13 per cent derivation principle.
For VAT allocation, he said the Federal Government received N12.48bn, representing 15 per cent; states, N41.62bn or 50 per cent; while local government councils received N29.13bn or 35 per cent.
“There was a decrease in the average price of crude oil from $51.05 to $50.44 per barrel and a significant increase in export volume by 0.85 million barrels, which resulted in increased revenue from export sales revenue by about $41m,” Idris stated.
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